Designing Levels and the Game Design Document - Game Design Essentials - page 174

FiGuRe 7.5 This level design for Vostok shows where all the levels are and the rough
look of one of the main areas, the large cave in the center.
Vostok is also an action-adventure game. A reporter travels to the remote base
of Vostok in the Antarctic to write about scientists exploring an unusual under-
water lake. The reporter gets trapped when a nearby volcano erupts, flooding
the upper areas of the subterranean base with steam, boiling water, and lava.
An unusual challenge of this overarching level design (it's overarching because
it maps out where all the game levels will be as opposed to looking in detail at
specific areas where localized gameplay can occur) is that Vostok is a real place,
the lake under it actually exists, and scientists have been studying it. Through
research, the designer learned about the local geography (Vostok is surrounded